New Recruit at January Gathering

Posted on February 8, 2013 by tom10ike

Imagine this.

You’ve just been accepted as a new intern for a Summer of Solutions program…let’s say Iowa City. Aside from being jubilant with excitement, you read further down the email and find out that your cohorts will, in a little over a week, be hopping into a car and spending five days (at an undisclosed location) preparing for skill sets in leadership for the summer’s program. You are enthusiastically welcomed (and subtly encouraged) to join the group on this outing. Perplexed, you scratch your head. You are new (not only to January Gathering, but to Summer of Solutions), but ambitious. As such, you reply that you will be joining the crew for the January Gathering in Chicago. You are set in your decision, though wondering who the members of your chapter are, what Grand Aspirations actually is, and, perhaps, how you got into the position that you’re in right now. The feeling of affirmation and mild terror dance in your stomach.

This is exactly (and candidly) what happened to me the week and a half right before January Gathering. Rest assured, I made it to and from Chicago in one piece and perhaps more importantly, I made it back a more ambitious person. While I can only speak for myself and my experience with those that make Grand Aspirations grand, going to a January Gathering is as much a baptism by fire as it is a chance to find a genuine community of quality people who WILL make the world a better place. There’s something to be said about jumping into the back seat of a Suburu Outback with two young guys, a young girl and her mother (the driver) and having enough humility to learn that those in the car with you are going to become some of the most impressive people you’ve ever met. And that’s before even getting to Chicago. Continue reading →

Reno, NV Envirolution Three Spheres Leadership Academy

Posted on January 30, 2013 by s0luti0naries

The Three Spheres Leadership Academy (TSLA) is an Envirolution summer program, which engages local youth in our community by introducing them to local entrepreneurs, leaders, businesses, and sustainable practices. TSLA first kicked off in the summer of 2012; for five weeks area youth learned about the Reno community and its leaders. Participants saw that it can be one thing to live in the community, but it is a whole other thing to be actively involved in helping the community to become more sustainable!

Intro to sustainability

Building a solar water pump at Girlfarm

TSLA empowers our local youth to step up, and take leadership roles in the community. Participants are encouraged to become youth leaders and are given the opportunity to hear and connect with local leaders. In 2012 TSLA participants heard 23 people discuss how they have made an impact in our community. These youth leaders participated in
24 field experiences around the Reno-Tahoe sustainability community, and engaged in a variety of service learning projects in our community, like building a solar water pump for irrigation at a local farm, and helping frame a storage shed for a non-profit. The TSLA students were trained and certified to perform a triple bottom line analysis, evaluating the economic, environmental, and social perspective in making decisions. Continue reading →

FCF Lexington Seeking a Program Development Intern

Posted on January 28, 2013 by lmjagoe

Could you be FCF Lexington’s Program Development Intern for our 2013 Strong Camps? Full Circles Foundation Lexington is currently looking for someone with an outgoing personality, great personal organization, and a self-motivated work ethic who wants to improve his/her leadership skills, work within a wonderful community, and be an important provider allowing young women to have a great summer! More information can be found on our website, including a detailed job description and schedule. We would love to have you join our team!

Additionally, applications for 2013 Summer Fellow positions in both Raleigh and Lexington are going to be open this month! Know someone who wants to have a summer filed with laughter, meaning, and female empowerment? Spread the word if you know someone who might be interested in applying! Continue reading →

Education for (Environmental) Liberation

Posted on January 27, 2013 by letsgochicago

This blog post, written by Chicago Program Leader Nell Seggerson, is cross-posted from Letsgochicago.org.

In this blog, I’m going to attempt to pack the two things I think about all the time into one tidy package about the future of our communities: schools and climate change.

A motto we use (not very much but enough that I’m going to say it’s our motto) here in Chicago is “A school in every neighborhood, a garden in every yard”.

BORING:

We’ve been talking about the connection between the education system and sustainable community transitions for awhile now and it makes sense to us that we should be working with schools, but mostly because schools are a resource to get more kids involved, not because we recognized why the schools need us. But as times in education shift, it’s becoming more clear why schools and community-based environmental groups need each other.

In Chicago right now, we’re in the midst of a battle for public education. It’s the modern apparatus of a 200 year movement for public education that includes the fight of slaves teaching their children to read and black organizers building freedom schools during the Civil Rights movement. But now, as the bloody hand of neoliberalism claws at one of the city’s (and country’s) last remaining public institutions the ground is being laid for a huge community uprising.

In March, the Chicago Board of Education will release its list of school closings. So far there have only been rumors and small leaks from the Mayor’s office, but predicted numbers have been around 100 schools.

WOW! Continue reading →

Introducing Two New Twin Cities Program Leaders!

Posted on January 25, 2013 by patricialamas

Please help welcome our newest additions to the team, Aly and Elizabeth! They’ve arrived just in time for a massive transfer of information from last week at Chicago’s January Gathering. Though that’s a lot to digest over our long-distance Skype call meetings, they’ve already hit the ground running!

182590_4478390169950_1592946254_n Aly Young

I’m from Rochester, Minnesota, but I’ve made Northfield my home (I’m a junior at St. Olaf College). I love to ride and fix my bike, run, play music, ski, cook, build things, knit, read, write, draw, and make things in general. I first heard about the program from my friend and former RA, Patricia Lamas, who told me all about the awesome things she got to do in the summer of 2012. I’m passionate about helping create strong, supportive communities; when a group of people care strongly for each other and the land around them, that’s when social and environmental change happens! This summer, I’m really excited to help foster that community as part of Summer of Solutions; I’m especially eager to become a part of the active Twin Cities urban farming and biking scene. Prior to becoming a Summer of Solutions program leader, I’ve been a SustainAbilities Representative at St. Olaf, served actively in residence life, and studied ecology in the Boundary Waters and Costa Rica. Outside of the academic year, you’d most likely find me paddling up at my family’s cabin on Pelican Lake or playing banjo on the street in downtown Rochester. I’m thrilled to be a part of something great! Continue reading →

Making connections in Little Rock

Posted on January 23, 2013 by AcadiaTitone

Free stuff seems to be a pretty foolproof way to capture the attention of college students during finals week. While some students passed our table with the sullen, unseeing eyes of preoccupation and sleep deprivation, many were lured in by our sirens song of “summer jobs here!” and tote bag giveaways. Harmony, Caitlin, and I were at Hendrix College for a few hours of tabling in mid-December to build our email list, get the word out about SoS, and advertise for our latest job opening.

Continue reading →

Reflections on January Gathering

Posted on January 22, 2013 by nerk729

As I walked out of the house where all my new friends were and I passed the church where I had spent 22 of 24 hours the last five days, a sadness clutched my heart. I had spent so much energy in the warm and welcoming walls of that building. I had learned about some of the most powerful tools anyone my age could have. I had forged friendships that would last a lifetime. I couldn’t help but feel that each step I took was taking me away from all that.

I was headed for a lonely train ride to a lonely bus ride back home, where I’d be hours away from anyone I’d shared these days with. It was hard to keep positive with that in mind.

As I sat on the train and I gazed out the window, I saw dozens of buildings, and something slowly dawned on me. I began to grow fearful. While I was at this Gathering, my thoughts had revolved around all the things I could do. As I looked out, I realized how much I would not be able to do. In this city alone, there were millions of people affected by the complex social and personal problems we had been identifying. There were surely hundreds of people trying to help the way we were. I realized how difficult it would be to unite all these solution-seeking individuals, and how little they could do to disrupt these issues which affect all of humanity. Continue reading →

Young People in New York Take on Albany!

Posted on January 22, 2013 by ArianaShapiro

It’s been a busy month for Summer of Solutions Ithaca! The hot issue in upstate New York is hydrofracking, and January has been a crucial period for legislative decisions around fracking. As you may know, New York has had a tenuous moratorium for the last 4 years, though Governor Cuomo has nearly given the go-ahead several times. We’ve been fighting our hardest to make sure that doesn’t happen!

Continue reading →

FCF: Updates and More!

Posted on January 20, 2013 by fullcirclesfoundation

Full Circles Foundation is excited to announce that applications for 2013 Summer Fellow positions are going to be open this month! Please check the FCF website soon if you are interested in applying, or spread the word if you know someone who you think might be interested in applying!

In addition to the Summer Fellow Applications, the FCF Annual holiday fundraiser hasn’t ended! The Strong Camp experience – six weeks of programming that illuminates the connections between strong selves, strong neighbors, and a strong home – has been made possible for over 100 girls in Lexington and Raleigh. This year, will you please consider making a contribution to support this coming year’s Strong Camps in Raleigh and Lexington? Throughout the year, you will be kept up to date with tales of the powerful personal, social, and economic returns that your investment is growing through our new, coordinated blog and our newsletters! 2013 is going to be the best year yet – won’t you give the gift of empowerment by joining us in growing strong girls, a fair economy, and a healthy earth

Winter Bake Sale!

We also held a bake sale fundraiser this past December in Downtown Raleigh. The event was organized by Domanique Herring. Domanique is majoring in Event Planning at North Carolina State University, and happily donated her skills to FCF’s worthy mission. Herring organized donations of artisan baked goods from bakeries all over the triangle. It was chilly, but FCF team had fun dancing to keep warm and telling passerbys about FCF. Overall, the bake sale brought in $500 towards our Summer 2013 Strong Camps!

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Looking Ahead to Twin Cities SoS 2013

Posted on January 6, 2013 by patricialamas

As a born and bred Minnesotan, there is nothing better than coming home to Minneapolis, especially in winter. I love the winter wonderland Minneapolis is transformed into aftera huge snowfall. However, as much as I have enjoyed the snow, relaxation, and copious amounts of tea that come with being home for winter break, I keep thinking about how excited I am for Summer of Solutions Twin Cities 2013.

2012 Solutionaries and a beautiful new wood chip path

Continue reading →